Filippo Grazioli on light and transparencies at Missoni

MILAN — Filippo Grazioli smiles easily as he talks about his spring collection for Missoni and poses for photos at the Milan from the brand showroom for an exclusive preview.

His cheerful, friendly temperament is reflected in his cheerful, youthful designs — no doubt in keeping with his mandate to rejuvenate the brand.

Following his menswear debut last June, Grazioli will stage his first women's show for Missoni on Friday at Bocconi from Milan University, with a set inspired by artists who often use light as a material, such as the South Korean Kimsooja or the American James Turrell.

Light is indeed at the center of the Grazioli collection, with colors refracted as in a prism. Grazioli worked mainly with black and white, primary yellow, magenta and cyan, which he says "are the bases of any type of shade". Sequins and studs brought light to several looks, such as a magenta skirt with shiny metallic buttons on the side.

The designer is very respectful of Missoni's history, but after his resort collection presented in June, Grazioli felt he could be bolder and "have more fun" with the spring lineup.

For example, mindful of the link to the past but translating it for the future, he introduced some transparencies. "I was influenced by the fact that [the founders] Rosita and Ottavio Missoni were banned from exhibiting in Florence after the collection they presented in 1967 [as part of the designers of the Sala Bianca] was deemed too outrageous," recalls Grazioli. The incident was caused by the Missoni's decision to show the collection on braless models as these arrived in the wrong color and exposed breasts under clothing caused a stir at the time.

Fast forward to today, clearly no one will argue and anyway the collection is never vulgar, and the transparencies quite sophisticated.

Ottavio Missoni was born in Dubrovnik and, perhaps also influenced by his summer holidays in Croatia , along the coast of which the patriarch and his wife once sailed, Grazioli revisited the past by revisiting Rosita's use of the bustier, enlivened by the brand's flames and zigzag patterns.

However, the designer limited the use of Missoni codes and patterns, juxtaposing them with colorblock details or supersize them as a single element on a dress and update them in new weights and techniques - the brand's craftsmanship is always evident.

Newness also came from tied and draped fabrics that added movement to form-fitting dresses, and from sexy fringed skirts.

Whether short or long, the silhouette was upright, fitted, and “body conscious,” said Grazioli, as one of his goals was "to improve the female body".

A graduate of the Istituto Europeo di Design in Milan, Grazioli, who joined Missoni in March, has developed his career in Paris. During an internship at Staff International, he met Martin Margiela and worked with the designer on women's collections until 2013. In 2015, after a stint as senior women's designer at Hermès, he had another important personal encounter with Riccardo Tisci and become director of collections at Givenchy. Grazioli then followed Tisci to become catwalk collection director at